The Return of Emerl
by Lasair Nova
Summary: What if Emerl hadn't really been destroyed? What if he survived, and now Sonic and company need his help more than ever. Five years after Sonic Battle Emerald has returned just in time to help Sonic save the day form Egg Man and his new tricks.
1. Chapter 1

**The Return of Emerl**

**Chapter 1: Arising**

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The following story line takes place 5 years after the events in Sonic Battle.

All charters are copyright to Sage, I do not own any of them

Ages

Sonic: 20

Tails: 13

Knuckles: 21

Rough: 22

Amy: 17

Cream: 11

Shadow: (Immortal)

Vector: 25

Espio: 21

Charmy: 11

Mighty: 21

Big: 23

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"Where…am…I? Who…am…I?"

At the bottom of a lake a goldenrod colored robot activates after being dormant for years, he is tuck in the black murk of the lakes under belly.

"Wait…I…know…who…I…am…Emerl."

Indeed, Emerl the gizoid who was befriended by Sonic and company after being abandoned by Egg Man. Sonic and his friends had taught him allot and considered him a friend, that is before he went insane and self destructed, or so everyone though. When he detonated on board Egg Man's death egg he had all seven chaos emeralds with him at the time, the explosion had resulted in a miniature chaos control that teleported him to Twinkle Lake, where he sunk to the bottom and eventually bury in the mud.

"I…must…get…out…but…how?"

Emerl was trapped at the bottom of Twinkle Lake in the mud, the cold temperature and water pressure had him partly immobilized, and the mud had him nearly immobilized. But as Sonic had told him once, 'never give quit, and never give up' so that's what he did, he kept going. He squirmed until he got one hand free of the mud, then he used a nearby rock as leverage to pull his head out. His optics adjusted to the dark and he saw nothing but water, mud, rocks, and seaweed. Grabbing the rock he finally pulled himself out of the mud, but found he had another problem, his legs were disabled. He lay on the bottom of the lake and thought about his options, he would drag himself to shore but in which direction? Then he saw it, wreckage leading in one direction he decided to follow the trail, worst case scenario he would find a wrecked ship or something and he could find something to fix himself. He started to drag himself in the direction of the wreck.

After three days of dragging himself across the bottom of the lake following bits and pieces of junk he found the source wreckage that littered the bottom of the lake, the wreck of the death egg, the place where he had been 'destroyed'.

"How fitting, my grave is to be my sanctuary." He said with a smirk.

After pulling himself into the wreckage, he found the remains of another robot in some of the outlying debris, where he found the parts he needed to repair himself, then he stood and looked around. That's when he saw a faint sky blue glow coming from deep within the wreckage of the death egg. Curious about this Emerl made his way through the twisted maze of metals, and wires he found the source of the faint blue light.

"A chaos emerald? What luck, it must be left from my battle with...Sonic."

Emerl felt sad now remembering that he had fought his friend, or did he? He had been manipulated by Egg man and over loaded, the others probably thought he was dead, and maybe it should stay like that. No, his friends would forgive him, they had forgiven him after the battle just before he had 'exploded', he remembered that now. Looking into the emerald he had just found he watched as the light from it shimmered, then he heard a splash from above and looked up. A small piece of debris had fallen into the water, but from where this whole place was under water, wasn't it? As he looked up he saw a surface, there was an air pocket above him, Emerl pushed off from the ground and swam up to the surface. Once he broke the surface of the water he saw that he was in one of Egg Mans labs that he had aboard the death egg, looking around he saw that is appeared to be in fairly good condition.

"This could work to my advantage, but first I need to recharge."

Emerl found a spot against the wall and sat down, holding the emerald in his hand and opened a hidden panel in his chest and placed the emerald inside and closed the panel, finely he switched into power save mode and shut down for the night.

**The Next Day**

Emerl woke and looked around, nothing had changed from the night before, good he was alone for now that would be the best way to be until he contacted his friends. But first he had some things he wanted to do first; finding out where he was would be a good start. He looked at a nearby computer terminal,

"No power, I guess I could jerry rig the emerald to power it but would it give me any information?"

After examining the computer terminal for several minutes Emerl found that it was an independent back up unit for all of Egg Man's information, with a connection to this Egg net.

"Well I guess this will be helpful, so let's see what we can do."

Emerl set about looking thought the debris for any useful parts for making a emerald interface to power the terminal. After nearly three hours Emerl had the terminal powered and was running thought the data that was stored on the local drives. The information was outdated at best but it still had useful information in it such as common weaknesses in Egg Man's E-series robots, locations of Egg Man's bases; all of them, it also had the last log entry from the main computer before the death egg crashed. Egg Man was defeated Sonic but survived the destruction of the death egg and had headed to another base, no log as to which one he went to. The wreckage that Emerl was in was actually only a just fragment of the death egg that had broken off on reentry, the rest of the death egg had crashed on the main land. Emerl downloaded most of the usable data from the terminal and then started to accessed the egg net to find any current information that would shed some light on events since he had been gone. The first thing he did was find out how long he had been 'destroyed', the verdict was not good.

"Five years,' he said with despair. "I've been 'dead' for five years? Everyone has probably forgotten about me, so now what do I do?"

As if to answer his question, a new flash broadcasted across the egg net.

_This is Dr. Egg Man to the inhabitants of this pathetic planet, surrender to me or I will crush you all! And don't think that Sonic will come to your rescue this time, HO HO HO HO HO HO (stupid Egg Man laugh)._

Emerl just stared at the message text running across the screen, one phrase stood out for him '_Sonic will come to your rescue this time'_, why would that be unless...

"I need to get back up there, they need my help! But I can't do it by myself and I can collect any more emeralds unless I want do self destruct, I need to bring something with me to the fight, something to help me...everyone fight Egg Man, but what...?"

Looking around Emerl realized that this was one of Egg Man's robotics lab, it was filled with parts and equipment of all sorts and even several damaged robots, that's' when he got an idea. He walked over to one of Egg Man's old robots, a sixty foot long robot that look like a bird, Emerl set to work on building himself a plane with his own personal touches.

**Two Day Ago In Central City.**

Sonic the hedgehog was standing in Central City park at his favorite chilly dog stand just waiting to get two of his favorite snacks. Just as he was taking his first bite of his chilly dog he heard a familiar voice from behind him, a high pitch female voice.

"SSOOONNNIIICCCCC!!!!" Cried Amy.

Amy ran across the park to the cobalt hedgehog who was until a minute ago was enjoying two chilly dogs.

"AMY?!?" Sonic said as he looked for his escape.

"Sonic I've been looking all over for, Tails needs you at his work shop on the double, Egg Man is at it again."

With a site sigh of relief Sonic replied as he ate the last of his chilly dog.

"Say no more, I'm there."

Grabbing Amy in his arms he took off at a run towards Tail's workshop, little did either of them know that this adventure would be unlike anything they had gone on before. As Sonic skidded to a halt in front of Tail's work shop he had a funny felling like something was out of place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The sky was blue just like every other day in Emerald City, but something just seemed off. That's when Tail's work shop exploded throwing both him and Amy across the street, Sonic stood shaking off the grogginess from the explosion and as the smoke cleared an egg shaped robot was standing where Tail's work shop had been.

"Tails!!" Sonic shouted wondering if his buddy was ok.

"HO HO HO HO, Tails is fine for the moment rodent."

"EGG MAN!"

"Yes Sonic it's me, and if you want Tails to remain alive you had better do what I say."

"Yah? Or what?"

"Look for yourself Sonic."

The robot that was facing Sonic opened its chest plate to reveal Tails trapped with in it, he appeared to be in some sort of cocoon with wires of all sorts attached to his body.

"What have you done with him!" Demanded Sonic.

"Tails is the bran of the robot, and with him all the secrets of your fighting skills are at my disposal."

"You asshole! this is a new low even for you."

"Oh but I haven't even started, see?"

"What?"

While Sonic had been distracted by Egg Man another robot had snuck up behind him and taken Amy, who was now in the same situation as Tails.

"Amy!! Let her go Egg Man!"

"But of core Sonic, right after they kill you!"

"What!!!"

Almost on cue the two robots launched themselves at Sonic trying to crush him, Sonic jumped to avoided them but then he saw that it was a mistake. The Tails robot had tentacles and one was already heading right for Sonic. There was another explosion and the tentacles disappeared in a flash of light.

"Chaos Spear!"

"Shadow!"

Shadow suddenly started to attack one of the robots, Sonic then realized that it would mean if these robots were destroyed, it would kill Tails and Amy.

"Shadow stop! Tails and Amy are inside those things."

"What? Shadow bellowed in disbelief.

"It's true, we have to get out of here."

Shadow only growled and took off to avoid fighting the robots more, Sonic fallowed and the two for the first time ran form Egg Man.

"HO HO HO, that's right Sonic run there nothing you can do now."

"We'll see about that Egg-face." Sonic challenged as he and shadow ran off to find Knuckles.

"No Sonic as long as he has our friends in there he'll have the upper hand, we have to find away to get them out."

"yah but how? Tails is the one who comes up with the ideas in this area."

"We'll have to make due until we get him back."

Sonic didn't like this one bit, his best friend and Amy were now being used against them as weapons, Egg man had crossed a like now Sonic vowed that once he got his friends back that he would personally kill Egg Man this time and end this whole thing, once and for all.

**Angel Island: 2 hours later.**

"Knuckles! hay Knuckles where are you?"

Sonic and Shadow had been on angel island for almost an hour and no sign of the red echidna, not even at the master emerald where Knuckles was almost always found. Finely the two ran in to evident of fighting, broken ground fallen trees, but worst of all three dead Chao.

"What the hell happened here?' muttered Shadow.

"I don't know, but if the Chao have been hurt the bigger question is, where is Chaos?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember? Chaos comes out of the master emerald if the Chao are in danger, and I think getting killed qualifies as danger."

No sooner did the words leave this mouth then Chaos appeared, metalizing from a pool of 'water' directly in front of Sonic and Shadow.

"Chaos!" Sonic exclaimed. "What on Mobius happened here?"

Chaos only stared back at them growling at them and looking very angry.

"Chaos, what's wrong?" Asked Sonic.

"Nothing is worn my dear hedgehog." Egg Man's voice was coming _from_ Chaos now.

"What!?" Sonic and Shadow asked in disbelief.

"OH HO HO HO HO, I have control of Chaos as well and that's not all."

Suddenly another egg shaped robot appeared, but this one was different. Instead of tentacles and legs it had treads and drills, Sonic instantly knew what that meant, Knuckles.

"Knuckles!" Shouted Sonic

"He can't hear you rodent, none of them can. There now all my servants and will do my bidding, but I'll give you a fair chance to try and defeat them."

"Like anything you have ever done here is fair Egg Man!" Shouted Sonic.

"If that's your answer then I'll just for go my offer and kill the tow of you right here."

"Fine, we'll lesion."

"I knew you would see it my way hedgehog. Here's my offer, meet me on Emerald beach in two days to face off against my agents, if you can disable my robots I'll release your friends, if not then I'll get to kill you. Or you could meet me in two days and just surrender, then you and your friends would live for certain, your choice hedgehog. Oh and to prove I'm sincere with my offer, my new Egg fort will not leave emerald beach for two day, that's right I'll leave the rest of your friends alone. So do we have a deal?

"See you in two days, Egg-fucker."

"Till then Sonic, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA."

Chaos and the captured Knuckles disappeared into the jungle and the island fell silent leaving the two hedgehogs with nothing but the wind.

"So what's the next move Sonic?"

Sonic just looked down at the ground and spat.

"We get everyone who isn't captured together and find away to beat these...Egg cells."

"Heh, nice name. So I'll get Rough and GUN, you go and see if the Chaotix are still here."

"Sounds like a plan Shadow, where should we meet?"

"GUN HQ it the safest place now, I guess."

"Ok, let's get this over with."

"Oh by the way Sonic, I've never heard you curse at Egg Man or any one before."

"He never gave me a reason to."

With that both sonic and Shadow head off to their destinations to recruit all the help they could get. Sonic found the Chaotixs at Vectors office and after a quick recap of what had happened the entire crew was onboard including Mighty and Big. Shadow had no trouble in convincing Rough to join the team and immediately left for GUN HQ, after a quick overview of the situation GUN was onboard. Sonic and the Chaotixs arrived soon after and they set about figuring out how best to defeat the 'Egg Cells'.

"No, that could kill the occupants. We been over that option before, we need a new angel."

"General with all due respect, we've beat the shit out of this problem for the last twenty-four hours strait, we need a new opinion."

"Shadow, I think we need to get some rest. We've all been edge since this started and now were pushing our limit."

"Enough!" Everyone in the room turns to Sonic, his red eyes were emphasized against his blue fur.

"Were all exhausted, we all need some sleep even if we don't have a plan beyond blowing the Egg Cells up."

"But Sonic what about Amy, Tails, and Knuckles?"

"I don't know, but Egg Men is playing a new game, so do we."

Every one nodded and then looked at each other, they were indeed all tired and it showed, so they all decided to call it a night, or morning at that point.

**The Next Day**

Shadow woke with a start, the buzzer of his door was going off. He got up and saw the time, 16:30.

"Damn!"

They were suppose to face Egg Man at 14:00 that after noon, they were two and a half hours late. The buzz sounded at his door again, this time he opened it and saw Sonic there with a look of pure fear in his eye, and Sonic was almost near afraid.

"What happened?"

"Its Egg Man he's making every one think we abandoned them, come take a look."

Sonic led Shadow to the main control room where Egg Man was on the main monitor repeating his threat to Mobius.

"_ This is Dr. Egg Man to the inhabitants of this pathetic planet, surrender to me or I will crush you all! And don't think that Sonic will come to your rescue this time, HO HO HO HO HO HO!"_

Images of Sonic and Shadow fighting the Egg Cells and then running from them were playing while Egg Man's speech played. No one in the room spoke, then the message went blank and restarted, then the audio was muted and the people returned to their work stations, Sonic and crew walked over to the general as he tuned to them.

"Egg Man anticipated that we would over extend ourselves and was ready to use this as a scar tactic."

"Its working sir," A voice called from somewhere in the sea of computers. One of the monitors switched to a view of Central City, on the screen people were rioting demanding that GUN and the government step down peacefully.

"Great, now it looks like Egg man has won."

"NO, not as long as I'm alive!" Declared Sonic as he tuned to run out.

"Wait Sonic, you're going to need our help!" Called Vector

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"General, is Egg Man still at emerald beach?" Asked Shadow.

"For the moment, we'll send a squad of security drones to help, good luck Sonic."

"We'll need more then luck this time, we are going to need a miracle."

Sonic looked back at the image of Egg man laughing as the threatened Mobius, the images were broadcast all over the world via the egg net, and anyone with access to the egg net could see it. Even some one at the bottom of Twinkle Lake.

End of chapter 1, to be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**The Return of Emerl**

**Chapter 2: Home Coming**

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The following story line takes place 5 years after the events in Sonic Battle.

All charters are copyright to Sage, I do not own any of them

Ages

Sonic: 20

Tails: 13

Knuckles: 21

Rough: 22

Amy: 17

Cream: 11

Shadow: (Immortal)

Vector: 25

Espio: 21

Charmy: 11

Mighty: 21

Big: 23

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Emerl had wasted no time in completing his plane, using the chaos emerald we build the plane at near light speed. Once he was done he looked his work over, and satisfied that it was done he took a minute to take in his creation. It looked like an ordinary jet air plane, twin engines with swept back wings, and a bubble cockpit with seats for two. He walked back to the terminal he was using and took one final look at the images on the screen, Central City was partly on fire from riots, emerald town was occupied as well as angel island and Night Babylon, things were bad out there and he needed to do what he could to help.

"Time to see if this can stack up to Egg Man's robots, but even if it can't I still have my chaos emerald so that should even the field."

Emerl jumped into the pilot's seat and started up the engines, they hummed with a mechanical wine as they powered up. Emerl was still in the depths of the wreckage and had made a way out, he pushed a small button on a box and half of the wreckage exploded outwards and the ocean rushed in. once the water hit the plan the engines coughed but kept going, Emerl looked back and gave a grin (or he would have if he had a mouth). He pushed the throttle up and the plan lurched forward and plowed out of the debris and towards the surface.

**Emerald Town**

Sonic and his team were almost to emerald beach, and to Egg Man who was ironically still on emerald beach.

"He's waiting for us."Remarked Shadow.

"So be it, let's get this over with." Replied Sonic in a icy voice.

The group walked to within sight of Egg Man's new Egg fort, it was uglier than usual with black on purple panted hull, and it looked like a banana riding a watermelon. It was parked don the water's edge with the three Egg Cells and Chaos standing half way up the beach staring at Sonic and company.

"HO HO HO HO HO! I wasn't sure if you were going to show up Sonic, but now that you are we can get down to business."

"Yah Egg Man, let's get this over with so I can add this to my score card." Sonic taunted trying to sound brave and cocky as usual.

"Oh I don't think so Sonic, you see I have more surprises just for you!"

Suddenly several small versions of the Egg Cells rose out of the sand and faced Sonic.

"What?"

"I don't like where this is going Sonic." Said Vector.

Suddenly one of the mini Egg Cells leaped at Sonic in an opening move, Sonic simply spin dashed his attacker and knocked it to the ground. When it hit Sonic was shocked to see a Chao in side, it seemed to be alright and was even trying to get out, but just as it got one arm free a red light blinked inside the Egg Cells and the robot exploded, killing the Chao inside. Then it hit Sonic, Egg Man didn't care if he defeated him here, because if he won Egg Man would have made him reasonable for the deaths of so many. He couldn't do it, he just couldn't bring himself to fight these contraptions.

"Sonic! There attacking!" Yelled Espio.

At that moment the first two rows launched themselves at them, but before they were even a foot off the ground over half of the first row exploded in mid air.

"HA HA HA HA! If you refuse to fight then I'll just activate the self destruct on my servants, or do you surrender?"

"Never Egg Man! Every one try and find out a way to get the Chao out before the Cells explode, it's our only chance."

"Right!" Every one replied every one, everyone except Big that is.

Suddenly Big charged right at the Egg Cells containing Amy, Tails, and Knuckles. The miniature Egg Cells containing the Chao broke ranks and cleared a path for Big.

"BIG! What are you doing!?!?" Cried Sonic.

Big didn't answer he just keep running and running until there was an explosion and Big was gone. Looking at the spot there was a creator twice the size of Big, he had stepped on a land mine,

_That's why Egg Man waited two day, he mined the beach!_ Sonic thought to himself.

"Everyone the beach is mined!"

Everyone got the message and stayed back while they fought the Chao Egg Cells; Charmy was wrestling with one when it exploded, taking both the Chao inside and Charmy.

"Charmy!" Yelled Vector.

"Sonic we can't win this, and if we do there might not be any one left!" Shadow shouted.

"If we can take Egg Man with us for good, then I'll agree to those terms."

This was a new for Sonic; he was willing to give up everything including his life if Egg Man could be killed too. And Sonic was about ready to do that as another Egg cell exploded near by killing another Chao.

"This has to end."

**North Emerald Beach**

Cream the rabbit was standing under a palm tree; she could see the smoke and hear the explosions from here. It scared her and she was afraid for her friends also.

"I hope everything is going alright." She said in her quiet voice.

The sounds of the battle were suddenly drowned out by the wine of jet engines directly behind her. She let out a loud scream but she could hardly hear herself over the noise, then just as suddenly as it started the noise stopped. Cream felt herself to make sure she was still in one peace looked around, it was darker than before, then she looked up and saw that a jet had landed directly behind her, it was standing on its engines and remind her of Tail's X-Tornado when it walked, but this plane was much smaller and had only two wings instead of four. She cautiously looked up to the cockpit to see if she could see the pilot, the cockpit was open but no one was inside.

"Hello Cream." Said a soft familiar robotic voice from behind her.

_It couldn't be, could it?_ She thought, as she slowly tuned around to see a goldenrod colored robot with blue 'eyes', and they were staring her right in hers.

"Emerl? Is that really you?"

"Yes Cream it me, I'm not sure how I survived but I'm glad I did."

"Mr. Sonic is fighting Egg Man, and it doesn't sound like it's going too well."

"I know, that's why I'm here I'm going to help them. Would you like to come, the last time we worked together you helped me a lot."

"But I don't like violence, you know that."

"Yes but Sonic needs your help, I need your help."

Cream looked down at the sand for a minute thinking about whether or not to go with Emerl, it was true she had helped Emerl grow and ultimately defeat in the end, maybe she could do that again.

"Ok I'll help."

"Thank you, now hold on."

Emerl picked up Cream as if she was as light as air; he jumped to the cockpit of his plane and helped her into the back seat. After strapping her in, he got into the pilots seat and closed the canopy. Grabbing the controls the plane purred to life. The cabin walls of the plane were smooth and suddenly lit up and displayed the surroundings with tactical information; all in all it gave Emerl a three hundred and sixty degree view around the plan. The plane lifted off and shifted back into normal fight mode, lurching forward with sudden momentum. Cream was thrown back into her seat, looking around she saw that they were already over the battle, and it wasn't going well for Sonic and company, several were lying on the ground either injured or dead.

"What on Mobius are those?" Asked Emerl, not intending on getting an answer from Cream.

"What's in them?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"Look, you can see something in them just before they explode."

Emerl looked at the monitor in front if him and was about to look at the play back when an explosion shook the plane.

"We'll have to find out later, there attacking us!"

Emerl put the plane into a loop and brought it nose down at the battle and opened fire with his twin plasma guns, instantly vaporizing a small area of enemies, but the surrounding ground exploded, more than it should have. Emerl switched to infer red imaging and discovered why, mines.

"The beach is mined; we'll need to clear them for Sonic. Cream I need you to keep a look out for any of Egg Man's robot that try and attack us."

In truth Emerl could have done that by himself, but he could concentrate on clearing the mines if Cream watched their tail.

"Ok, here comes one from seven o'clock low." Cream said reading off the angel from the wrap around screen in the plane.

"Got it." Replied Emerl as he dodged and dove left to avoid the oncoming robot.

AS the robot passed it opened up and reveled a very scared Chao inside, then it exploded. Cram could only gape at the image she just saw.

"Emerl there are Chao in those robots that are exploding!"

"WHAT?" Cried Emerl.

If that was true then he had just killed several of them, he pulled his plane skyward as he rethought his straight.

_Ok, they detonate on proximity. So how do I disable them without killing them?_ Emerl thought to himself, and then an idea hit him. He flipped his plane and charged at Egg Man's ship increasing speed.

"Emerl what are you doing?" Cream said nearly screaming

"Ending this madness, don't worry we'll be alright."

Just then Emerl hit a button on his joystick and the whole plane shuddered, on seconded it was an ordinary plane then it transformed completely in to a robot, and was still accelerating towards Egg Man's ship. Two gun barrels extended from each wrist and let out a deadly lance of plasma that impacted Egg Man's ship. The plasma cut right though the hull and Emerl crashed right through.

***

"We can't keep this up Sonic." Yelled Shadow

"I know but what choice do we have?"

Sonic looked around and surveyed the battle, Vector was down Espio was missing and the GUN robots were almost all destroyed. Things were defiantly not going well at all, and then he heard a new sound in the background. He looked around and finally spotted the source of the sound, a jet was flying over the battle and it looked like it was ready to join. Then something exploded near the plane and it swerved and aimed for the Chao Cells, then it opened fire and a dozen Cells exploded along with several mines. Sonic knew that the pilot didn't know about the Chao, but he started to look for a way to let him know they were in here. Then he saw one leap at the plane, their plane dogged and the Cell exploded near the cockpit. The plane flew striate up for a moment then dove at Egg Man's ship, after a moment the plane shuddered and transformed into a robot. The feature weren't clear form this distance but Sonic could see arms, legs and what looked like an over sized rifle on its back. The robot plane continued to dive at the ship and fired from somewhere Sonic couldn't see, the hull of Egg Man's ship exploded and the plane crashed though.

"Whoever that was I don't think they are going to survive for very long in there."

"Or maybe there the help we need." Shouted Shadow.

Sonic didn't get a chance to reply, while they had been distracted all by the Chao Cells and the plane that he didn't see the Egg Cells with Tail's, Amy, Knuckles and Chaos approaching. Now they were literally on top of them, the Tail's Cell had grappled Sonic and had him pinned on the ground. Sonic was doing his best to get free but to no avail, Knuckles was hammering what was left of the Chaotixs and Amy was fighting Shadow, Chaos was handling the rest.

"No we can't go down like this."

The Tail's Cell stared at Sonic with its red bar of an eye unmercifully and looked like it was ready to kill him, Sonic closed his eyes and waited.

**The Egg Fort**

The roof collapsed under the strain of weapons fire and the weight of the robotic plane, when the dust settled a thirty foot robot stood in the cargo bay. Three Behemoths entered the room and opened fire at the intruder, Emerl reacted quickly and deployed a shield from his robots left forearm and deflected the assault. Emerl reached for the large rifle on the robots back and poked the mussel around the shield and returned fire. The rifle fired 44cal. armor piercing rounds at the attackers, making short work of them. Emerl stood and surveyed his fallen appoints, stratified that they were down for good he turned his attention to the monitor in front of him.

"We need to find the bridge and find a way to shut down the robots outside."

"I think I have an idea as to where it is, I was looking while you fought off Egg Man's robots."

"Nice work, show me so we can put a stop to this."

A map appeared on Emerl's screen with an out lined path to the bridge, Emerl noticed something a little off about the layout of the ship.

"Cream, the hallways and rooms are big enough for this robot to walk through, that doesn't make sense why would Egg Man need the inside of his ship that big?"

It was a rhetorical question because he knew Cream didn't have the slightest clue why Egg Man had built his ship like this, but she gave an answer any way.

"Maybe he has bigger robot's, or he got that big?"

_Heh I would love to see an even fatter Egg Man then before, it would be funny to see him fly apart. _He thought to himself.

Emerl drove his robot along the path Cream had found for him, they didn't run into any more resistance, and that made Emerl concerned. If Egg Man had gone to so much trouble to fight Sonic, why wouldn't there be dozens of security robots in here? His questions would have to wait because at that moment he was at the door to the bridge, which was still as large as the rest of the ship. Emerl punched the door and it collapsed, he found the last thing he expected. There standing in the middle of the room was a giant robotic replica of Egg Man himself.

"HO HO HO HO HO. Well who do we have here? Sonic and his pathetic band are outside and I've captured the rest, so tell me who are you?"

Emerl made some adjustments in his control panel and changed the sound of his voice as it was projected by his robot.

"My name is of no concern to you, Egg Man." He retorted in a harsh voice.

"Oh but it does, it does. You see I like to know the names of the people I kill, not just some face less pilot."

"Sorry to disappoint Egg Man, but I'm not in a talking mood, so let's get this over with."

Emerl's robot raised its gun and a bayonet lashed out from a hidden compartment under the muzzle. Emerl pointed the weapon at Egg Man and was ready to fire, when Egg Man spoke again.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you."

"Oh and why not?"

"Because if you do your friends will die out there."

"What are you talking about Egg Man?"

"You are one of Sonics' pathetic friends are you not?"

"I am a friend of Sonics', but I am not at all pathetic."

"Oh we'll see about that, but no mater I have Tails, Knuckles, and Amy in those pods outside. One command, or my death and they die."

Now things started to make sense to Emerl, the Chao pods were cannon fodder and the larger ones he had seen making their way up the beach were pods with Tails, Knuckles, and Amy in them. Now he had a whole new set of problems to worry about, if he attacked Egg Man he risked killing them and any one near from the explosion, but if he didn't fight him and try to stop the pods Sonic and the others _would_ die. He needed to come up with a new plan and quick, he doubted if Egg Man was going to let him sit here and sort this all out, or was he? Egg Man had been interested in talking, or at least trying to find out who he was, that could buy him some time to figure out a way to beat him and save the others.

"Ok Egg Man I'll bite, what's your game here? I know you want to conquer this planet but this isn't your style, so what changed?"

"Ah you see I've seen the light, I have always been too easy on Sonic and his friends, if I want to win its going to take drastic measures, and killing them in the process is only a bonus."

"So you're going to kill them no matter the outcome?" Now Emerl had a plan, he just needed Egg Man to spill a few more beans to formulate a complete plan.

"Of course I am, but if your thinking of attacking me anyway, I have a live ink to the pods, so as long as that link is up the pods will stay in one peace."

_Got yah you fat bitch!_

Emerl quickly scanned the area for any transitions so he could mimic them, Egg Man didn't say that the link _had_ to come from him, only that there had to be one. Emerl found the transition and locked on, copied it and started broadcasting his own. He leveled the gun and Egg Man one more time, switched off the voice scrambler and told Egg Man.

"My name is Emerl, you Egg f..."

Emerl didn't get a chance to finish his insult because it was cut off by an explosion behind Egg Man, the controls were nearly destroyed and on fire. But as the dust settled Emerl could see there was something else there, or rather someone was standing there in the fire. No in the fire, the fire was around him and he had something plugged into the panel, then he looked at Emerl's robot nodded and launched a fire ball from his hand, right at Egg Man. Emerl didn't know who this was but at the moment he didn't care, he was helping and that was all that mattered.

He was helping fight Egg Man...

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	3. Chapter 3

**The Return of Emerl**

**Chapter 3: Show Down**

The following story line takes place 5 years after the events in Sonic Battle.

All charters are copyright to Sage, I do not own any of them

Ages

Sonic: 20

Tails: 13

Knuckles: 21

Rough: 22

Amy: 17

Cream: 11

Shadow: (Immortal)

Vector: 25

Espio: 21

Mighty: 21

Egg Man was stunned by an explosion behind his Egg Giant, but quickly recovered. Not quickly enough to avoid a fire ball being hurled right at him. The fire ball impacted but did minimal damage.

"HO HO HO HO! Is that the best you have?"

"Forget about me?"

Taking advantage of the distraction Emerl fired at Egg Man, but to his surprise his rounds only bounced off of Egg Man's armor. Without thinking he jabbed at Egg Man with his bayonet and hit him dead center, but he only scratched his armor.

"What is this thing made of?" Emerl asked.

"HA HA HA HA HA! This battle mech is made out of tritium, it's indestructible!"

_Or so you think._ Emerl said to himself.

Suddenly Emerl's monitor flickered and an image of a hedgehog appeared, but he was unlike anyone he had seen before. His fur and top set of quills were orange, the rest of his quills were yellow. He wore blue sunglasses, a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and shoos similar to Sonics'. But the one feature that set him apart from any other hedgehogs he had seen was a pair of large orange wings on his back. He looked right at Emerl and quickly explained.

"I've hacked Egg Man's computer and I can take control of the Egg Cells, but I'm going to need some time. Can you keep him busy while I get this done?"

"Sure, but I need to keep transmitting a single to keep the 'Cells' from self destructing."

"I got it covered, my tablet is transmitting the same single, focus on Egg Man I'll take care of this mess."

"Ok, I'll give you all the time you need. By the way, who are you?"

"The names Phoenix the Hedgehog."

Emerl nodded and returned his attention to Egg Man who was now just getting up from the last attack and looking very pissed off. He turned to Emerl and changed his hands into machine guns.

"I've had enough of you, you've been a pain in my side ever since I found you. Now I'll be rid of you once and for all."

"Not likely Egg Man."

Emerl opened his shield again and extended an energy field to extend the shields protection. Egg Man's machine guns fired 50 cal. rounds witch bounced harmlessly off the energy shield. Emerl waited for a few seconds to let Egg Man deplete some of his ammunition, after forty five seconds he poked the mussel out from behind the shield and fired his 44 cal. rounds impaling Egg Man's robot. Egg Man rolled to one side to avoid Emerl's fire, but Emerl tracked him. Egg Man opened the chest panel of his robot to reveal over a hundred missiles tubes all pointed at Emerl. Egg Man fired all his missiles at Emerl, and Emerl ducked behind his shield and braced. The missiles hit his shield, the energy field drained almost instantly but absorbed the explosive force from the impact, the armor shield held against the concessive force but through Emerl back across the room. As the dust cleared Egg Man was gone, Emerl looked up and realized that Egg Man had escaped through a trap door in the roof. Emerl knew that this fight was starting to get out of hand, and he couldn't risk Cream any longer, he reached for a button and a map appeared on his screen, he looked for a safe spot and found one the same place he had picked up Cream.

"Cream, you've been a great help, but I need to go solo now. I'm going to send you back to the beach where I found you, once you get back there get away from here. I have a felling the rest of this battle is going to get out of hand and I don't want you hurt."

"No Emerl I'm staying, I'm going to see this through to the end."

_Wow when did she get such guts?_

"Are you sure? You could get hurt really bad."

"No, I'm staying."

Emerl didn't respond he just looked up and saw Egg Man rocking off, Emerl flicked a switched in his left control and transformed his robot back into a plane and sot off in pursuit of Egg Man. Emerl risked one glance back to the control panel in Egg Man's ship where the winged orange hedgehog was, but was now gone. Emerl looked back to the skies and saw Egg Man flying farther out. Where was he going Emerl though, did he have a different base in the sky, or even space? Where he was going didn't mater he just had to stop him. Emerl fired his plasma cannons, but Egg Man was out of range so Emerl switched to 44 mil. rounds and opened fire in a spray of bullets that found there mark, Egg Man's robot started to bellow smoke and slowed down.

"Got yah now, Egg face."

Emerl pushed his plane to maximum thrust and closed the gap between the two of them, when he was with in only a few feet of Egg Man Emerl transformed back into a robot and reached out and grabbed Egg Man's robot by its 'leg'. He pulled Egg Man's 'face' to his and stared him down.

"One thing Egg Man before I kill you, what made you change? You never actually killed anyone before, why now?"

"That was why I never won in the past, I was too easy on Sonic and his friends."

"And now its cost you your life."

Egg Man grabbed the hands of Emerl's robot, and the two of them fought hand-to-hand combat. Emerl struggled with his controls against Egg Man's robot, trying to gain an advantage to subdued Egg Man. It would have been easy to just kill Egg Man right then and there, but Emerl wanted to at least try and capture him alive, if nothing else he could say that he tried. Finally after several minutest of wining hydraulics, screeching metal on metal, and a few pot shots from Emerl's 44 mil. rifle Egg Man gained an advantage. Egg man pried the large gun from the hand of Emerl's robot and was trying to turn it on Emerl. Emerl grabbed Egg Man and held his robot so he couldn't fire.

"Nice try Egg man, but I've got you out matched this time."

What Egg Man failed to relies was that the nose cone of the plane was the chest of the robot, and under the nose on both sides was the planes mane guns. Emerl opened the cannons storage pods and they extended a few inches from the surface of the robot and were pointed right at Egg Man. Emerl pulled the trigger and both plasma and 44 mil. rounds slammed into Egg Man's robot at point blank range, ripping holes into its hull and out the other side.

"You may think you have won you pathetic excuse for an A.I. but I'm not the real Egg Man! I'm just one of hundreds of robotic copies that will carry out the masters plan! But I'm going to make sure that you don't interfere with the masters plan any more."

"What?" Asked Emerl in surprise.

Suddenly a light in his monitor started blinking, it was his energy scanner. The scanner was picking up a large amount of energy build up, directly in front of them.

"He going to self destruct!" cried Emerl.

"See you in hell, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Emerl looked at the mech in front of him, and smirked (or he would have if he had a mouth), he reached down to a small red button under a plastic cover. Then there was a near blinding light.

***

Sonic gasped for breath as the Tail's cell pressed down with its weight, but it was only pressing with its weight the cell wasn't moving, why? Sonic continued to struggle, then he heard an explosion. Looking around to see where the sound had come from he saw what looked like one of egg man's mechs rocketing off into the air, followed closely be the plane he had seen shoot its way into Egg Man's ship. Out of nowhere an orange bolt ripped through the cell above him leaving a large hole in it but otherwise in tacked. Sonic looked above him and saw the last thing he expected to see, but had prayed for as soon as the battle started. Tails was laying limply, but alive on the ground. Standing above him was his rescuer, a hedgehog with orange fur, mostly yellow quills, and a pair of large orange wings. Sonic had never seen this hedgehog before but he was glad to see him none the less. The orange hedgehog turned to Shadow.

"The explosives are disabled, get them out of there now!"

Whoever this was he understood the situation, that gave Sonic a bit of relief. Sonic wiggled enough to get enough room to perform a spin dash and free himself. Once he was up he looked to the Egg Cell holding Amy, it already had a hole in it so Sonic tuned and charged the one holding Knuckles. After three spin attacks Sonic finally opened the robot and pulled Knuckles out. As he jumped to the ground bringing a unconscious Knuckles with him he happened to look over and see the orange hedgehog rip the mine control module out of Chaos. Sonic was starting to feel as if they had won, but that's when they heard another explosion and everyone looked up. They saw that something had exploded in high orbit, then there was a beeping sound coming from all around them.

"Everyone RUN!" shouted the orange hedgehog, "The mines and robots are going TO BLOW!"

No one questioned the stranger carrying Tails, every one realized that he was right and they all took off running, even Chaos started running even though there were still Chao on the beach. Just as the last in the group crossed into Emerald town, the beach they were standing on erupted into an inferno that turned the sand into glass. Sonic looked back in horror, if they had stayed even a few seconds more they would all be dead and Egg Man would have won, he would have actually won this time. Sonics' thoughts were interrupted by what looked like a beach ball hovering a few feet from the group. A holographic screen extended out from the sphere and Egg Man appeared on it looking angry then ever.

"So you think it's going to be that easy to beat me Sonic? Well it's not, this is now total war!"

"Egg Man this is a new low, even for you! We'll fight you and everything you throw at us!"

"HO HO HO HO HO! But how long can you last? Your already down by two of your pesky annoyances."

"What ever Egg Man! As long as there is berth in me then I'll fight you!"

"That what I like to hear rodent, fight me until you die, or you give up it makes no difference to me at long as you're out of the way."

Sonic ground his teeth glaring at Egg Man, if he was even remotely serious Egg Man could send in waves of robots just to tryer him out and beat him. This wasn't the Egg Man he knew from green hill zone, this was a different cynical Egg Man. And that freaked him out. As if Egg Man could read him mind a large robot walked out of the fiery beach and started to walk right at them, Sonic knew that they couldn't fight that thing, not right now anyway. There was a flash of blue light from behind the robot, and another robotic hand was grabbing the 'neck' of Egg Man's new robot. The large purple colored robot tried to turned its head to see its attacker, it never got the chance. With a swift motion the unknown robot snapped off the head of Egg Man's robot, with its CPU gone along with its head the robot slumped over. Standing over the immobile body was a twenty-five foot tall milk white robot, Sonic realized that this robot was the same one he had seen attack Egg Man's ship. Looking at it you could tell it was part plane, a nose cone formed its chest, the wings were in a 'cape' behind it, and the feet had the look of engines. No one spoke a word afraid that this thing might want to attack them too, there was a hissing nose and the nose cone bent down and the shoulders lifted up and back to revel the cockpit and it two occupants, a goldenrod robot and a tan rabbit.

The robot stood in the cockpit and looked over the stunned group, looking them over his eyes focused on Sonic.

"Surprised?" He asked Sonic. "To be honest I'm not sure how I survived myself."

"Emerl!? Is that really you?"

"The one and only Sonic, just like you."

Emerl turned around and offered a hand to Cream and helped her out of the plane, she was still a little shocked that they didn't blow up with Egg Man.

"What happened?" She asked. "I thought that Egg Man robot was going to take us with him?"

"What are talking about Cream?" Asked Sonic.

"We were fighting what we thought was Egg Man, but it turned out to be a robotic doubles, one of hundreds apparently."

"Wait, wait Egg Man had hundreds of robotic doubles running around causing trouble?"

"Apparently, he really has lost his mind."

"HA HA HA HA HA! On the contrary hedgehog, my mind is only that much more clearer!"

Egg man's voice was coming from the beach ball monitoring device hovering over their heads. Emerl stared up at it with disgust, almost as if he was trying to see where Egg Man was.

"Yah right Egg Face! You couldn't beat me before and you won't now! I'll fight you and all of your robotic duplicates."

Egg Man snorted in disgust and the orb few away, leaving the group. Emerl was standing on the nose of his plane staring in the direction that the orb disappeared, things had changed the stakes higher, and his enemy more dangerous. This was no longer simply holding Egg Man ay bay, this was all out war!

Phoenix The Hedgehog is my fan character and is copyright to me.

Please read and review, I want feedback from my readers.

One note to my readers, this chapter concludes "The Return of Emerl", however there will be a longer sequel to follow titled, "A New Life".


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